Sermon Tone Analysis

*Watching What God Does, and Doing It*

/Ephesians 4:31-5:1/

 

I’ve taken a seminary class on the book of Ephesians.

I’ve done my own in-depth study of Ephesians, and I’ve taught through it at least twice.

I have preached from Ephesians many times.

And yet as we’ve been going through the fourth chapter of this marvelous book I’ve had some amazing things uncovered for me.

It’s been a wonderful and exciting expedition as God has spoken to me in my study, preparing to share these things with you.

Thank you for being here.

I’ve mentioned to you before that one Bible scholar has called Ephesians the “Grand Canyon of Scripture.”

It’s also been called “The Alps of the New Testament,” “The Queen of the Epistles,” and “The Holy of Holies of the Epistles.”

The descriptions just pile up on top of each other, and while I believe we could agree with all of those descriptions, none of them seem to do it justice.

It is more like a treasure house containing all kinds of precious jewels and metals, and every time we enter its doors we find more and more to delight us, riches that we did not see before.

The passage we look at today is no exception.

So let’s open the door to this Treasure House, and step inside.

Don’t even bother to reach for the light switch—God Himself will turn on the Light.

Paul tells us in verses 22-24 that we are to /“put off the old self” /and to/ “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”/

We’ve compared that to taking off dirty clothes, and putting on clean clothes.

In keeping with that analogy, in verse 31 Paul tells us that we are to /“get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.”/

In recent weeks we have covered those topics sufficiently, so we’re not going to spend a great deal of time on them.

We do want to remind ourselves, though, that these are all things that simply do not fit us as believers.

So instead of saying that we are to put off the filthy rags, we might even use the analogy of clothes that do not fit us.

Take them off!

Exchange them for clothes that are clean and fresh, and which fit us the way clothes should fit.

Paul tells us now what we are to do instead.

The words he gives us are very simple words, when we are reading them, but picking up those words and making them part of our lives is sometimes very difficult.

Paul writes, /“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.”/

In essence, Paul is telling us that we are to be like God in the way we deal with each other.

Bruce Larson once remarked that we people in the church are like porcupines in a snowstorm.

We need each other to keep warm, but we prick each other if we get too close.

The way we relate to one another has a direct bearing on the level of holiness and depth of discipleship in our lives.

Take Ephesians 4 and slice it, dice it, analyze it, prod it, scope it—and it still comes out the same way.

If we want to be obedient followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have to discover what this means.

The words are simple, but it is important that we stop long enough to hold this jewel from Scripture up to the Light of God so we can get the full meaning of it.

You will notice that the very first word in verse 32 is the word “be.”

Get this!

The word literally means “to become.”

It’s not just “/be/ kind”; it’s “/become/ kind,” “/become/ compassionate.”

Paul is acknowledging that his first readers had not completely reached this level of maturity in Christ.

Back in verse 13 of this chapter, Paul had written that God is working in the lives of His people /“until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”/

The whole idea of the latter half of Ephesians 4 seems to indicate that this was something that they were to be striving toward, that they had not reached it yet.

Have any of us?

 

Break it down some more.

The word for “become” is a command, and it is something we are to be continuously doing.

It would be better translated: “Be constantly in the process of becoming.”

It expresses the idea of someone who has begun something and is now continuing to work on it.

It is not something any of us can look back on and say, “Well, I’ve finished with that!

Bring on the next thing.”

We haven’t arrived at our goal yet, but we’re committed to keep working on it and to stay in the process of becoming.

So the thought flows from verse 31 quite naturally into verse 32:

 

/Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice, becoming kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you/.

In the */process/* of getting rid of these things, you will become kind and compassionate.

But wait!

There’s more!

That word is also the way the very next chapter begins.

It’s not “/be/ an imitator or follower of God,” but “/become/ one who imitates God.” Remember that the chapter and verse numbers were not there originally, but were added much later to make it easier for us to refer to the Scriptures.

So we need to tell our brains to ignore the “5” there, and see this as one continuous thought:

 

/Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice, becoming kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you, becoming imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children./

In the */process/* of forgiving each other, you will become like God in His forgiveness of us.

Do you see how it ties together now?

It is a process, a journey, an expedition.

None of us is completely “there” yet.

We all have some work that needs to be done on us.

God is in the process of developing us as we move through our lives and years.

He is making us into what He wants us to be, and He tells us through His Holy Word that we must be yielding ourselves to His Holy Spirit so He can accomplish these things in us.

Next we need to look at the word for “kind.”

It means that we show a sweet and generous disposition toward others.

There is a play on words here in this verse, but it’s more than that.

The original word for “kind” is pronounced “chrestos.”

The original word for “Christ” just a few verses later is pronounced “christos.”

/“Become chrestos, because Christos has forgiven you.”/

Be like Christ in the way you deal with others.

Now put that thought over here, because Paul’s not finished with it.

Remember, the thought continues into 5:1, where Paul says that we are to imitate God.

The word used there gives us our English word “mimic.”

Paul says that we are to mimic God, the way that a child mimics its father.

So take those two thoughts and put them together.

Ephesians 4:32 says that we are to be like Christ.

Ephesians 5:1, the very next verse, says that we are to imitate God.

Next, let’s talk about the word “compassionate.”

This word is rarely used in the New Testament, and without going into too many details, it describes the kind of feeling that you get for someone else that rises from deep inside you.

The King James Version translates it as “tenderhearted.”

I know some of us guys might have trouble with the concept of being tenderhearted, as if we think being compassionate toward someone somehow makes us less of a man.

Listen, guys!

God’s Word teaches us that when Christ gets hold of your heart and life, He changes you so drastically that you are different from the inside out.

You have compassion for others, the way Christ had compassion for you.

When Christ changes you, you really become what you were created to become.

He doesn’t make you less of a man—He finally frees you up to become a real man in Christ Jesus!

 

“Forgiveness” is next, and it’s a biggie.

Pay attention to the fact that this verse does not say, “Hey guys, if it ever becomes necessary, be sure to forgive each other.”

No, it is taken for granted that forgiveness will be necessary.

We’re going to sin against each other.

We’re not always going to agree, we’re not always going to behave in a pleasing manner, we’re not always going to do things that make others happy with us.

Many times we will need forgiveness, and we will need to forgive.

But this verse tells us that the standard for the way we are to forgive one another is set by the way God in Christ forgave us!

A stubborn old farmer was plowing his field.

His neighbor was watching in puzzlement as the old guy was struggling much harder than necessary to guide the plow horse.

Finally he said, “I don’t want to butt in, but you could save yourself a lot of work by saying ‘gee’ and ‘haw’ instead of jerking on the reins.”

Wiping his brow, the old timer replied, “Yep, I know, but this here mule kicked me six years ago, and I ain’t spoke to him since.”

How like that farmer we are!